Car seat for 3.5 year old

[Downbadatthegym]

My three year old 13kg and 95cm seems to be making out her Joie 18kg 105cm car seat in height. She is already forward facing (a bone of contention between my husband and I) so we will be keeping her that way. What is the best thing to buy going forward? Is it a high backed booster or are their bigger proper car seats that will offer her more protection? I feel very out of my depth with this.

Or am I sitting here in it incorrectly are there any tweaks to get another 10cm out of it? Her head is reaching the top of the headrest at its most extended. I’m surprised as she is very long limbed rather than long bodied.

No you're not wrong, I have a similar Joie one in my mam's car for my son while she minds him and he has almost outgrown it at 2.5 (he's 14.5kg). I don't think we are missing a trick either.

What seat is it? There aren't many of theirs which are 105cm and 18kg - most of them have different limits for one of the stats.

And where are her eyes/shoulders? I assume you have taken all inserts out. With the 105cm stage seats, it's allowed for their head to poke out over the top, the limit is eyes being level with the top, but with the movable headrests what tends to be more relevant is the position of their shoulders under the headrest and where the straps come out from the seat. For forward facing, straps should be level with shoulders or no more than 2cm higher.

Joie headrests tend to be much more generous with space than other brands so this is surprising if she is only 95cm tall and tends to carry height in her legs.

@BertieBotts I don't know about the OP but one I'm finding smaller than expected is the Joie Steadi R129, however my son is tall.

@LolaJ87 ita the joie Steadi we have but what @BertieBotts mentioned about the head being okay to come above the headrest I didn’t know so that makes much more sense, her head is just below the top so she probably has another 5-6 centimetres in it- thanks for the advice.

Ah I wondered if it might be the Steadi as that was the only one I could think of with those limits.

Annoying that it is so short - it sounds like you do have a bit longer in it at least, though. I have now checked the manual, and it doesn't say anything about headrest position but does say that shoulder straps must be level with shoulders, so I think they want you to size it from that. I would make sure that the headrest is in the right position with this in mind. (The eyes being level is a general forward facing car seat rule).

Out of interest, if you put the headrest up to the top setting and then take a tape measure, how far is it from the seat (where their bum would go) to the shoulder strap? I will check this against the two seats I have at home (Joie 360 Spin and Britax Advansafix).